BOOK XXXIII. XII. 40-xiii. 42 



pearls han^ invisible suspended by gold chains from 



their lady owners' neck, so that even in their sleep 



they may retain the conscioiisness of possessing 



gems : but are even their feet to be shod with gold," 



and shall gold create this female Order of Knight- 



hood, intermediate between the matron's robe and 



the common people ? Much more becomingly do 



we men bestow this on our page-boys, and the 



wealthy show these lads make has quite transformed 



the pubhc baths ! But nowadays even men are 



beginning to wear on their fingers a representation 



of Harpocrates ^ and figures of Egyptian deities. 



In the time of the Emperor Claudius there was also a.d. 41-54. 



another unusual distinction, belonging to those 



whose rights of free access to the presence had 



given them the privilege of wearing a gold likeness 



of the emperor on a ring, this affording a great 



opportunity for informations ; but all of this was 



however entirely aboHshed by the opportune rise 



to power of the Emperor Vespasian, by making the a.d. 69-79. 



emperor equally accessible to all. Let this suffice 



for a discussion of the subject of gold rings and their 



employment. 



XIII. Next in degree was the crime committed <^ Roman 

 by the person who first coined a gold denarius,^ a in'three 

 crime which itself also is hidden and its author un- metais. 

 known. The Roman nation did not even use a 

 stamped silver coinage before the conquest of King 275 b.c. 

 Pyrrhus. The as weighed one pound — hence the 

 term still in use, ' httle pound ' ^ and ' two pounder ' / ; 

 this is the reason why a fine is specified in ' heavy 

 bronze,'^ and why in book-keeping outlay is still 

 designated as ' sums weighed out,' and Ukewise 

 On aes, see XXXIV. 1, note. 



35 



